Windows Central News

Have questions? Need help? Let's talk about the new Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL announced today!

This morning, Microsoft unveiled two new affordable Windows Phones to the Lumia family: the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL.

Both phones significantly improve upon their predecessors, the Lumia 630/635 and Lumia 1320, respectively with better hardware and fewer limitations. All with a solid price point for emerging markets and those on a budget.

The Windows Central community is buzzing right now with the release of the very first Technical Preview of Windows 10 for phones. There's a lot to talk about from which phones can get it, through new features, right into what we'd like to see happen in the future. We're still getting our heads around it all, but there's plenty of great discussions to be had, and there's no better place to have them than in the Windows Central Forums.

The Tech Informist is a great, yet still relatively new tech podcast hosted by Kevin Harvell and JJ Hammond that's boasted such great guests in the past as Mary Jo Foley, Paul Thurrott, and our own Daniel Rubino. On the latest episode they went for a more international flavor and invited our Managing Editor, Richard Devine, to join them to talk about Microsoft, Mobile World Congress and even racing!

It would be underselling it a great deal if we didn't say that Microsoft HoloLens was one of the most surprising, stand out points of the Windows 10 event. After all, this isn't just Windows 10, it's Windows 10 on your head! It's an exciting new frontier for Microsoft and personal computing in general and we want you to come and join the discussion in the Windows Central HoloLens forums!

It's easy to gauge the excitement in the community after yesterday's Windows 10 event. By just going into the Windows Central dedicated Windows 10 forums it doesn't take long to see the explosion of post-event discussion and general all round excitement. It's great to see and if you're not already actively participating, there's never been a better time!

A few weeks ago, Windows Central in conjunction with Microsoft kicked off our second Hidden Gems campaign dubbed 12 Days of Hidden Gems. The goal of the program is to give some in-depth coverage of apps on Windows and Windows Phone that you may not have known about. Additionally, we allocated $12,000 in prizes to be given away (announcement of the winners is coming soon).

Now that the program has winded down and we start off 2015, we figured we would do a small recap of what was covered, in case you missed our reviews. Furthermore, we are adding a poll at the end so that you can tell us what categories you find most interesting so that we can tailor our future coverage towards your wants.

CES is both astonishing and exhausting. As such, lots of interesting things happen on and off camera during our coverage and one of them makes good Sunday fodder.

Ben Rudolph (@BenThePCGuy) should be no stranger to Windows Central readers. As director of Worldwide Retail Sales Evangelism at Microsoft, Rudolph plays a significant role in retail for software and hardware company.

When it comes to CES 2015, what happens in Vegas definitely does not stay in Vegas. Windows Central has landed and we'll be on the ground for the next week with our Mobile Nations colleagues to bring you the absolute best of everything that the annual Consumer Electronics Show has to offer.

But the experience goes beyond just the posts that hit the front pages. For the behind the scenes stuff and the complete CES experience you'll want to keep one eye on the socials, too. Here's all you need to follow Windows Central at CES 2015.

Another year kicks off, and another bout of the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is Las Vegas, Nevada is set to begin as well. Next week, the world's largest tech companies and reporters are descending on Vegas for nearly a week of next-gen technology announcements, and we will be there.

CES is always a bit fun as it serves as a barometer for where technology is going in that year. So, what do we expect for CES 2015? Let's find out.

Happy New Year! It's time to start writing that number 5 instead of 4 when filling out paperwork. But before we move on, let's take a look at Windows Central's five most viewed videos from 2014. And if you haven't done it yet, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel. You get notified whenever a new video gets published and we occasionally put stuff in there that doesn't show up here on the site.

We are slightly past the halfway point in our 12 Days of Hidden Gems campaign, co-sponsored by Microsoft, and we figured we would expand things a bit.

If you recall, we recently announced that some highly valued Microsoft engineers and developers are assisting in our forums, working with people on Windows 10 requests and features. Now, we are growing that project with more Microsoft reps, focusing on Hidden Gems.

We say goodbye and give thanks to Sam Sabri as he heads off to his next adventure!

The season for change is upon us as we approach 2015 and New Years. Some of it is good, some of it is sad. For the last two years, Sam Sabri has been on my right-hand side, helping the Windows Central site grow into one of the largest Microsoft sites on the planet. He is also a good friend. It is with this sentiment that it saddens me to announce his departure from the Windows Central team.

As it turns out though, this is actually a joyous occasion too. Although we are losing an esteemed member of our staff, Sam had an opportunity that he just could not pass up. We jokingly refer to it as 'getting called to mothership' but in reality, it means he is going to work for Microsoft.

To say that we are proud of Sam is an understatement. We certainly respect his decision and couldn't be happier for him and his future at Microsoft!

This last week of Windows Central has certainly been an interesting one. If you missed much of the news, or need a solid recap, make sure to catch our ICYMI series that goes up on Saturdays. Those articles tend to highlight all the big stories of the week, letting you catch up on things if you missed a day.

Perhaps two of our biggest stories have been the renewal of our Hidden Gems campaign and Microsoft engineers and developers lending a hand in our forums to talk all things Windows 10. For the first part, I'd like to quickly chat about something that will be controversial: the US/Canada-only nature of the sweepstakes.

Help make Windows 10 even better by working with these Microsoft engineers and developers!

Besides announcing our forthcoming 12 Days of Hidden Gems sweepstakes next week, Windows Central is also proud to announce our Microsoft verified-employees program for our help forums!

Now, when you use our forums, there will be a small crew of Microsoft engineers to help answer your questions, especially about Windows 10. So how will you know they are legitimate? You can see a Microsoft badge with a verified check mark as seen below, to let you know you are dealing with an authentic Microsoft employee.

Every week we do a fun photography contest in the Windows Central forums. Each week we go with a different theme and get so many good entries into the contest. But without fail we also have a handful of readers who aren't sure on how to submit their photos from Windows Phone into the forums. Here's how you can use the excellent forum app Tapatalk to enter our weekly photo contests!

Although many of you land on our front page and just read the latest stories, Windows Central is much more than just the news. For instance, our sprawling support forums have over 250,000 registered members, 10K of which are online this morning, resulting in 1.3 million posts. Another unique and related area you may not know about is our 'Q&A' section.

As the name implies, Q&A (Forums.windowscentral.com/ask/) is a simple tool whereby you can ask a question on Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, Microsoft, the Surface and more. Then, someone from the community attempts to answer the question, with the top response labeled 'Best Answer' for quick reference. All of this is done in a simple, clean, and easy to read format.

A lot can happen in a week. New apps join the Windows Phone Store or Windows Store. Your favorite apps can get a big update with a new look or new features. Device rumors come and go. Seven days might not seem like much, but it can be an eternity in the tech news cycle. Every week we're going to compile the biggest stories into one post, so you never fall behind – In Case You Missed It (ICYMI).

This week saw some exciting changes around here. WPCentral became Windows Central, a big change that is evidence of many fun things to come. With that change comes a lot of rebrandings, and as I was looking around my office, I realized that I have a bunch of WPCentral items that need to go to make room for new Windows Central goodies. So this weekend, we're working on clearing the old things out!

We have a new name! We began as WMExperts back in 2007 covering Windows Mobile, changed our name in late 2010 to WPCentral to reflect Microsoft's next chapter with Windows Phone. Today, we are once again moving forward with Windows Central.

The Number One Community For EVERYTHING Microsoft

It should be clear now that coming into 2015 there is just one Windows, running on the Surface, Xbox One, PCs, laptops and even your phone. At the urging of many of our loyal and active readers, over the last year we have steadily ramped up coverage — beyond our historical Windows Phone focus — to also cover Xbox, Surface, and general Microsoft news. The response to the expanded coverage has been excellent and this past year has also seen the site and our community grow by leaps and bounds. Amazingly, WPCentral is now not only the top Windows Phone site in the world, but we are also one of the top Microsoft sites too. The fact of the matter is if you own a Windows Phone, you are likely to possess (or be interested in) the growing ecosystem of Microsoft products.

We want to continue the momentum that's already underway and changing from WPCentral.com to WindowsCentral.com reflects our expanded mission (not to mention Microsoft recently dropped the Phone from the branding on new Windows phones). Our goal and mission is simple - we'll be working our hardest every single day to make this community and resource the best destination around for all users of Microsoft-based products.

Last week we asked you to nominate your choice for best podcast app on Windows Phone. That post received nearly three hundred comments with many suggestions. We went through the comments to pull out some of the popular suggestions into a poll that you're going to take today. Go ahead and cast your vote for best podcast app on Windows Phone!